LOFAR, radio astronomy project
Description
LOFAR, ASTRON's groundbreaking radio astronomy project.
ASTRON is the Dutch institute for radio astronomical research and based in Dwingeloo. It has gained world fame for its pioneering instrumentation programme and radio astronomy research.
LOFAR - LOw Frequency Array- is an (inter)national radio astronomical observation facility, realised under the leadership of ASTRON. This telescope receives low-frequency radio waves (10 - 240 MHz) from space with an extensive array of many thousands of relatively inexpensive antennas. The antennas are organised in fields spread over an area of about 100x100 km2 in the north of the Netherlands. There are also fields in Germany Sweden and France. Recently, a LOFAR field also became operational in England. After local processing, the signals from the antennas are sent via high-speed fibre-optic links to the data processing centre at the University of Groningen, where they are combined and analysed by an IBM supercomputer. In this way, LOFAR is a large, composite radio telescope, hundreds of times more sensitive than existing radio telescopes in similar frequency bands and can therefore rightly be called the eyes of the world. The resulting data streams from the total antenna array are gigantic in size and constitute one of the very largest data streams in the world. LOFAR has recently become operational and has already provided the first images of objects from the universe. One of LOFAR's important goals is to look very far back in time, contributing to knowledge about the origins of the universe.
Dr Albert Jan Boonstra, head of ASTRON's astronomy laboratory, will discuss the development of the LOFAR telescope in this meeting. In particular, it will discuss LOFAR techniques, such as antenna, antenna signals and signal processing, as well as the first results
The exciting programme is as follows:
18.30-19.00 Registration and reception with coffee or tea
1. brief introduction ASTRON
2. radio astromy, the challenges and observing principles
3. LOFAR techniques (antennas, DSP, signal processing,...)
Break
4. Continued LOFAR techniques
5. First LOFAR results
6. SKA (Square Kilometer Array): the next challenge and successor to LOFAR
21.15-21.30 Closing discussion and conclusion
Speaker(s)
Dr Albert Jan Boonstra, head of ASTRON's astronomy laboratory.
Location
Eindhoven University of Technology
Building Potentiaal, PT 1.05
Organiser
Electrical Engineering
Name and contact details for information
Ing. Richard van Heijningen, r.van.heijningen@philips.com, t: (06) 22528046 ir. L. Boonstra, t: (040) 221 37 58